The Growth Mindset Playbook Chapter 4 Reflection

    This chapter of The Growth Mindset Playbook talks about Metacognition, the way of thinking about how we learn and problem solve (essentially thinking about thinking). This chapter goes to describe how many students are not very good problem solvers themselves because the answers are always given to them, so they don't have to apply any thinking through the process. If teachers don't make a habit of providing the students the easy-way-out, and they teach them to really focus on what helps them to learn, then they will become effective problem solvers. This chapter implements many useful strategies for getting students to think about their thinking. A few strategies that it provides include to have them keep a Thinking Journal where they answer questions such as "What do you do when you don't understand something?," "What could you have done better to improve your learning today?," and "How do you connect new information to what you already know?" These and many similar questions will help students to dig deep into what helps them to learn best. Essentially, Thinking Journals are a good form of reflection. As a teacher, one can review students' responses and form lesson plans accordingly to fit everyone's learning style. "Make a point to celebrate both the similarities and differences in learning, continually reminding students that all people learn differently" (The Growth Mindset Playbook). Another good strategy this book suggests that kind of goes along with the Thinking Journal (and can definitely be done in the Thinking Journal) is to create Thinking Stems with starters such as "This reminds me," "I'm wondering," and "I know I'm learning when." These kinds of Thinking Stems help for when you want students to connect their thinking processes with a lesson, or as this chapter describes, a class book. Keeping these notes helps to physically write down your way of thinking through something as well as your detailed thought processes as they happen. I find these to be good strategies for teachers to implement in their classroom, but also a good idea of something to do personally in order to reflect on one's own thoughts just in general (hence, I may start keeping a Thinking Journal for myself and include Thinking Stems). A few other strategies this book includes to help expand the idea of students thinking about how they learn include giving feedback to students, having students assess each other (Peer Assessment), and activating prior knowledge and connecting that to new knowledge. I definitely thought that this chapter provided many good strategies for not only getting your students to reflect on how they learn, but also a way for me to reflect on my own learning and understanding while I am still in college. Asking yourself questions about thinking and understanding definitely helps with reflection of oneself and can lead to improvements in learning methods that have not previously worked.